Mosaic Co (MOS): Today's Featured Chemicals Laggard

Mosaic ( MOS) pushed the Chemicals industry lower today making it today's featured Chemicals laggard. The industry as a whole closed the day up 0.4%. By the end of trading, Mosaic fell $0.85 (-1.5%) to $55.60 on average volume. Throughout the day, 4,036,742 shares of Mosaic exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 2,742,000 shares. The stock ranged in price between $55.25-$56.77 after having opened the day at $56.30 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $56.45. Other companies within the Chemicals industry that declined today were: Ceres ( CERE), down 3.6%, Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile ( SQM), down 2.8%, REX American Resources ( REX), down 2.2% and Braskem ( BAK), down 1.9%.

The Mosaic Company produces and markets concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients for the agriculture industry worldwide. Mosaic has a market cap of $16.2 billion and is part of the basic materials sector. Shares are down 0.3% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday. Currently there are 12 analysts that rate Mosaic a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 4 rate it a hold.

TheStreet Ratings rates Mosaic as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and increase in net income. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.